Pastor Dan Burrell from Life Fellowship Church invited ERI President Josh Brahm to be interviewed for a four-episode series on pro-life dialogue for their podcast, LifeTalks. This is the fourth episode in that series, where Dan plays a hostile pro-choice advocate in a mock debate with Josh!
Questions: (mock debate)
- 1:51: Who are you to say what a woman has a right to do with her own body?
- 2:56: But isn’t it ‘her body, her choice’?
- 3:22: Even if the fetus may be a person, it is not viable, or won’t be for some time.
- 4:19: What if the baby is born with severe mental or physical defects?
- 5:30: Isn’t it wrong for you to insist that a woman deliver a baby that she cannot take care of?
- 6:43: Is it compassionate to force a woman who has been violently raped to be reminded of the assault every day for at least 9 months?
- 8:40: Aren’t most of your arguments based on religion?
- 9:45: Would you force a woman whose life is at risk with this pregnancy to continue?
- 10:59: Isn’t the pro-life position a slippery slope that could end with a negative view of even birth control?
- 12:30: Aren’t you a conservative? Wouldn’t this be government overreach to ban abortion?
- 13:43: Doesn’t pro-life legislation infringe on the right to privacy?
- 14:29: Aren’t your arguments patriarchal and sexist?
- 15:52: Isn’t comparing abortion to genocide an overreach?
Related Links:
- ERI Bodily Rights Materials
- ERI Blog: Responding to the Question of Rape with Wisdom and Compassion
- ERI Video: Why I Hate Responding to the Question of Rape
- ERI Blog: 6 Resources on Whether or Not Birth Control Pills Cause Abortions
Josh worked in the pro-life movement starting at age 18. After 12 years of full-time pro-life work he launched Equal Rights Institute to maximize his impact on the movement.
A sought-after speaker, Josh has spoken for more than 29,000 people in six countries and in 25 of the 50 states.
Josh’s primary passion is helping pro-life people to be more persuasive when they communicate with pro-choice people. That means ditching faulty rhetoric and tactics and embracing arguments that hold up under philosophical scrutiny.
He has publicly debated leaders from Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), Georgians for Choice, and one of the leading abortion facilities in Atlanta.
Josh also wants to bring relational apologetics to the pro-life movement. “Some pro-choice people will not change their mind after one conversation on a college campus. Some of them will only change their mind after dozens of conversations with a person they trust in the context of friendship.”
Josh is formerly the host of a globally-heard podcast turned radio/TV show, Life Report and the Equipped for Life Podcast. He’s also written dozens of articles for LifeNews.com and the ERI blog. He has been interviewed by the Washington Post, NPR, and Focus on the Family.
He directed the first 40 Days for Life campaign in Fresno, resulting in up to 60 lives saved.
Josh has been happily married to his wife, Hannah, for 19 years. They have three sons, Noah, William, and Eli. They live in Charlotte, North Carolina.